The present invention relates to wireless communication technologies, and in particular, relates to a technology for reducing interference generated in wireless communication.
Wireless communication is communication using radio waves having the property of propagating in space. Since the radio waves are absorbed and reflected by building materials and the like, the electric power of the radio wave which a wireless terminal can receive will be weakened in particular spaces, such as an indoor space. Moreover, the conventional wireless communication system has established, as the base station equipment, macro cell base station equipments (high output power base station equipments with a wide covering area), each of which covers an area of several kilometers in radius, and therefore, in the downlink (Forward Link) for communicating from a base station equipment to a wireless terminal, there is a problem that a sufficient throughput cannot be obtained due to deterioration in the link quality. Moreover, in the uplink (Reverse Link) for communicating from a wireless terminal to a base station equipment, the wireless terminal has to increase the transmission power and communicate, thus resulting in an increase in the power consumption of the wireless terminal.
Then, a system, in which in addition to the macro cell base station equipment, a small-sized femto cell base station equipment (a small output power base station equipment with a narrow covering area) is installed in an indoor area, such as at home, has received attention. In this system, a wireless terminal can advantageously communicate under better radio wave conditions both in the downlink and the uplink by accessing a nearby femto cell base station equipment.